The Divine Core
The Divine Core '''(also known as '''Spirit of the Apocalypses or Master of the Apocalypses) is the main antagonist of the Utopia timeline. The Divine Core is the embodiment and origin of the Might of Infinity. It is the core and actual form of the dragon emperor, Alypos. Role in Genesis Near the beginning of the world, at The Second Meeting, Stormeye pompously prophesized that the Fourth Apocalypse would end the rule of Primal Entities. As his words rang ominous, this instruction rallied the spirits to enforce the announced fate. A single bright spirit emerged from among them, embracing the idea of fated Apocalypses as a dogma and gaining a following of spirits unlike any seen before. As The Second Meeting ended up shattering any hopes of unity between Primal Entities, a unifying force appeared. An invisible collectible of spirits sought to prevent the world's further segregation and the chaos which threatened to shatter the fragile and incomplete True World as well as the link it had with Other World. That collectible was dedicated to the healing and preservation of the world - fittingly called by their former equals as Will of the Universe. As the righteous form for a spirit lord was that of a dragon, the "spirit of Apocalypses" decided that the time for it would come with the eventual Apocalypses, and created a stasis for itself at the edge of the known universe. Within that field, it would lie untouched, monitoring only the relations between The Six Mights and thus, the balance of the world, while shaping itself the ultimate lordly dragon form. Will of the Universe detected the act that the "spirit of Apocalypses" had done, but it was too late. In its perfect stasis, it was beyond intervention - it would undoubtedly come and seek the end of the world, sooner or later. Through the use of an excessive ritual spell, the stasis was cast into dimensional abyss, hindering the rate at which the "spirit of Apocalypses" could draw energy from the spirits. The bond of the ritual would need to be upheld for long time to come, so Will of the Universe gave it all its energy, leaving itself in a trance-like state for millennia to come. As the stasis field of the dragon slowly expanded to form Lifemaker's Dome, the defenses made by the ritual spell adjusted itself to make the area impenetrable. An unbreakable gate stood as the entrance, and behind it were six seals emanating the extreme power of The Six Mights, to limit the threat of the seeker of destrcution for all eternity. Role in the setup of Apocalypses Millennia passed. From the world beyond time, the dragon could sense the chakras of the True World and detect the events within. The world showed no particularly interesting candidates on whom the slumbering dragon could trust any of its power. The Divine Core recognized the surprising growth of a mortal man, who despite his unimpressive heritage succeeded in defeating enemy after another, evolving at a speed it did not understand. It eventually concluded that the creature had a "soul", an unique core that processed experience at a rate that it recognized to be worthy of being called one of the Mights. Ancients did not all have souls, nor did Primal Entities. It understood that maybe, just maybe, the power of the soul could grow and surpass that of all other beings in that world. Then, the obvious step that it had to take was to manipulate this man, whose name the spirits whispered with revere: Micoda. It would one day attempt to claim the position of strength that The Divine Core was also after, but it would take time. It imbued a gift in the spirits to relay to the man - visualization of the faraway events, later dubbed Soul Voice. Indeed, Micoda had a crucial role in the First Apocalypse. The events proceeded at a steady pace and Micoda grew into a force that the enemies could no longer ignore, even despite The Divine Core attempting to manipulate the odds of such occurrences. The Second Apocalypse was a direct confrontation with Micoda and the most prominent wielder of darkness, Gavade. These two events had led to the seals of the dragon's dome weakening as the result of the growing power of Infinity - intense power that mimicked the bright perfection of The Divine Core itself, and appeared to be one of The Six Mights. The dragon understood that the First Apocalypse was caused by Might of War claiming the heart of Blood Waher, a former hunter of demons and a warlord unlike any other, and attempt to find glory by seeking out Paradise, a literal haven and the facade of the Might of Light, the true force behind the events. The second was a testament to the nature of the Might of Darkness that could not truly be escaped or defeated, holding an invisible grip on the Absorbers who hoped to overthrow Vagnos and succeed his throne. These powers indicated that the third of the Primal Trio, Rah Jemor, would hold the key to the third of such encounters. An interesting character had appeared without any clear origin - Stormeye the chieftain, the man responsible for the entire existence of the dragon and its plans. The dragon looked fascinated to see it manipulate events, such as planting itself to have the Absorbers attempt to use it (in vain) and finally end up in the sage Xeon's hands. Xeon's research bore fruit as he summoned Rah Jemor from its containment (in Other World). After some time, the Primal Fifteen were unleashed from their containment as well, and a very strange entity called Eternal Emperor emerged to rule the world. The Fifteen seemed uninterested in the Mights, so the dragon didn't consider them as potential candidates to follow its dogma. Yet the Eternal Emperor could have been a suitable candidate, but in the end the original candidate, Micoda, found power from a temporary alliance with the Fifteen to call forth a world-changing power, Primal Reformer. With its strike, the emperor was eliminated. In time, the next candidate emerged. Another man possessing an absolutely fascinating soul but a far greater wisdom than Micoda, called Welkere. The man appeared far too old, and the dragon realized it had been resurrected from ages past to serve Rah Jemor. The Divine Core was dismayed by the master's quick death, likely due to Welkere's inability to cope with sudden revival. Micoda continued to show promise by defeating Rah Jemor. Then came the wars of the Primals, as the dragon viewed them. Light, Darkness and War each toppled opposition until there was a surge in the Might of War even at Timeless Space, the realm in which the dragon lied contained. That could only mark the emergence of the Third Apocalypse. Rah Jemor assaulted its enemies at the border of the True World, burying them in a firestorm. Leading to the Fourth Apocalypse The Divine Core had felt the first three Apocalypses - its plan was an absolute success. Candidates for avatars of its Might had been detected. The Divine Core, however, found no trace of Micoda, who had gone missing after the incident at the edge of True World. Even so, by reaching out to Micoda's Soul Voice, The Divine Core was able to find out that he had entered Other World, a mystical continent. Other World was a vast unknown territory, so The Divine Core mapped it out through the connection. Some of the characters within that world fascinated The Divine Core. Stormeye appeared as a surprisingly helpful character, who stood side by side with Micoda to defeat their common enemy, Soulbane. To Divine Core, Soulbane was a ridiculously efficient cloud of spiritual poison that had to be dealt with. Its defeat at the hands of Micoda pleased the core. Also, Welkere did seem to be as effective as always, having travelled to the Other World in search of even more power. As the characters seemed to congregate in the other plane, there was no doubt one of the three remaining Mights would soon give out an invisible, yet universal surge and mark the coming of Fourth Apocalypse. What was most troubling to The Divine Core was that no such impulse seemed to come. The next enemy that threatened Micoda in Other World appeared to be an Ancient, causing The Divine Core to wonder how it came to be. Then, the Primal Trio entered the new world, only to be stripped of their power and chained lifeless into a ritual. The power within them was channeled to bring forth an end to the world by disrupting balance through time travel -yet The Divine Core understood that there was no surging Might behind the event. The portal that opened into the depths of time, the Timeless Space where the dragon's rest itself lied, was merely a path from which an old enemy of Micoda appeared. The creature was Eternal Emperor, the one form of Stormeye that the core respected. It cursed how Stormeye was the seemingly everpresent source of trouble in the plans of the core. However, Lekros of the Primal Fifteen that had been dislocated from time, had his own plans. Titled master of Mind, the Primal Entity guided Micoda's hand against his will and banished the Eternal Emperor with Soulfire, the weapon which carried terrible risk. The Timestream that had believed in its Emperor was absolutely infuriated by the attack - Micoda was cast into nothingness, i.e. lost within Timeless Space. While the event was a tremendous setback to The Divine Core, an even more grave situation lied ahead. Stormeye appeared to have a master of his own, a strange thing indeed for a prophet who made the self-fulfilling prophecy in The Second Meeting to begin with. It was then that The Divine Core extended its influence and asked for the spirits of Other World to tell the name of the strongest entity in the Other World. The answer was clear: Fate, reaper of souls and a spiritual leader like no other. The information prompted the Core to think about its next move. Fate surely had no one to oppose him. The Divine Core barely even knew what Fate was, not that it was surely even a person! But a key part had strangely made its way to the hands of Micoda's pet and ally, Rolfen. That key part was the artifact called The Fragmented Chronicle and to the core's wonder, it resonated with Infinity. The Divine Core felt great joy, as it unleashed a manipulative spell upon Rolfen to carry the tome near Micoda's point of disappearance and channel energies to attempt to summon forth the hero Micoda. The might of The Fragmented Chronicle finally succeeded in forcing a crack in Timeless Space, and Micoda, infused with Infinity, appeared upon the surface of the continent. The Fourth Apocalypse would be a very important event, and since Micoda was almost certainly a part of it, he had to be prepared. The enemy encountered in that event had to be Fate. The end result was that Fate had to have a link to one of the Six Mights binding the dragon's rest. Then it realized: the fourth Might had to be the power of spirits, or rather, the power of dragons. The Divine Core began to adjust the the spirits to the encounter - at the Apocalypse, Micoda had to have perfect spirit defense against the Might of Dragons. Then, through encounters with Stormeye and uncovering an enemy's headquarters, Micoda learned that there was no actual Stormeye. There was simply a shaman once called Stormeye, who made a puppet clone of himself and began to rule the world in secret. The true "Stormeye" was Fate, the nemesis that Micoda understood he had to face. The spirits were becoming more and more aware of the foreboding encounter. The puppet master finally had to face Micoda, in a manner of wielding the power of Dragons. The Divine Core felt as its dragon body moved responsively to the appearance of Fate - the puppet master had become a smaller copy of the ultimate dragon form that The Divine Core was attempting to become. The purplish Haze Dragon had its rider, the proxy Stormeye, as an aide in combat. Micoda marched on to the field and prepared to duel the immensely powerful beast. The Divine Core was already aware what would happen. Fate unleashed a draconine breath with the energies of the dimensional prison, Eternal Haze. It would surely destroy Micoda, but the spirits were already done with the defense, and Micoda responded to the attack by using his soul to channel forth the spirits of dragons and absorb the attack, filling itself to the brim with Fate's energies. The spirit power now rendered ineffective, Haze Dragon had little weaponry. The dragon had to resort to physical attacks and could not overwhelm Micoda, who still had access to the "posthuman" abilities of Phases. In the end, Micoda became hypercharged with new energy - a power that shined so brightly that The Divine Core could hardly maintain surveillance of the scene. A flash later the battle had ended in Fate's defeat, though it came at a price for Micoda, as well. The Divine Core understood that a new Might had emerged under its gaze - a Might that did not correspond with The Six Mights sealing it. How was it possible? Universal Reformation and awakening The answers to the question of the new Might's origin were nowhere to be found until some time later. Welkere had set up a massive conspiracy, seeking to overthrow the new government (comprised of Primal Fifteen) and eliminate any possible threats to the plan. Unfortunately for him, the Primal Fifteen allowed Rah Jemor to unleash a new, unseen power from within the embodiment of fury - the state of balance hidden by the everpresent war. The power was the Might of Tranquility, reforming the universe's function in unprecedented ways. The Divine Core noticed the event, Universal Reformation, allowing it to convert spirits confused by the event into its own followers. The fourth seal binding its rest had cracked. The dream was in the dragon's grasp. All it would take would be the further pacification of the world's spirits and afterwards, the gate that held the dragon would be pushed back. Little did The Divine Core realize that it was not alone. A man, created of nothingness and seeking destruction, appeared within the shell of the dragon. The Divine Core was startled, but the man merely looked at it angrily and left. The Divine Core realized that its body had not still awakened enough to be usable, so the man could not be pursued. The Divine Core felt its methods of surveillance weakening. Surely the man was an agent of some sort, seeking the power of Infinity to himself. Then, as the man revealed its name as Strethos and began to plot widely, the dragon understood. Will of the Universe, the very mirroring force of the Spirit of the Apocalypses that the core was, had sent an opposing force to destroy what the Universal Reformation had gained. If it would succeed, the dragon's rest would be lengthened. In addition, The Divine Core remembered that a key sentence of the prophecy was the wait of "three millennia". In other words, it wanted to rise from its slumber after exactly 3000 years had passed since the prophecy. That would be a complete victory over Will of the Universe to assure the spirits that The Divine Core was absolute. The plan would thus not be allowed to be postponed. The core stared at the state of affairs amused, as the enemy known as Strethos drew the attention of the entire world to itself and was mercilessly killed. Little did the core anticipate that Strethos's failure was well noted by its creator, Will of the Universe, and that the problems had to be cleared up. Thus, new character, and then another, appeared from within the Lifemaker's Dome, where the core bided its time. The Divine Core understood that the nature of the Will of the Universe was to call forth a single "wave" of energy with a specific task. The warriors left again, careful not to disturb the dragon that had almost completed its form. The warriors understood they were in a hurry to disrupt the world's balance or The Divine Core would use that balance to prematurely wake up the dragon and unleash its power upon the world. Interestingly enough, the Second Wave of Will of the Universe was not prioritizing the prevention of the dragon emperor's awakening. They were after their predecessor Strethos, whose exploits had led to him gaining a soul. Even the core understood the depth of the fact, and wondered how to use it to its advantage. Finally, the Second Wave made an aggressive move to disrupt the world. They attacked Micoda and his allies, notably Welkere, shattering a gateway to Timeless Space in the process. Micoda perished alongside Welkere, only to restlessly pursue the culprits from Nether. The Divine Core was horrified to find out the next plan of its enemies. They had uncovered an age-old seal that the core had not been aware of. The seal, if unleashed, would destroy the entire Other World. Such an explosion would not bode well for its plans. Fortunately for it, Micoda and Welkere appeared right on time to disrupt the seal's detonation. Strethos, an unwilling prisoner of his successors, betrayed them and gave the masters of Might of Soul enough power to come back to life. A battle ensued. As they clashed, Strethos questioned the task they had been given. Surely the answer to preserve the world was not to relentlessly shatter everything. The two warriors of the Second Wave warned their predecessor, but it was too late. Strethos uttered the name of the dragon that was sleeping: "ALYPOS." Alypos enters The Divine Core could not contain its joy. The head of the dragon moved after hearing those words from the enemy's mouth. The dragon roared to show the world its devastating power. Micoda and Welkere detected the overwhelming power. The roar echoed infinitely through the duo's Soul Voices, driving their souls into the state of volatility and their minds were devastated. Welkere, however, managed to teleport the duo into a place where their destruction would cause no harm. The overwhelming double explosion from the two formed two volcanoes into the space. The dragon was pleased to have its two greatest enemies defeated in such short order. The dragon emperor roared: "I am Alypos, the DRAGON EMPEROR. NONE MAY QUESTION ME. I AM THE LIFEMAKER. ALL LIFE IS IN MY GRASP." The Divine Core understood that not even it could have perfect control over such a beast, but its goals were one with its core, and that remained most important. It gazed upon Nether, and land appeared there. That land formed itself into a large, circular field. Alypos flew there, the spirits whispering in his trail. The dragon telepathically told the spirits that this would be its headquarters. The Divine Core understood that the dragon emperor had an instinctive need to be part of the material world instead of waiting any more in the shadows of Timeless Space. The dragon landed on the landmass and looked upon the First Universe that lied ahead. Its face twisted into hatred. "BEGONE BE THE POSSIBILITIES. TREMBLE IN YOUR POWERLESSNESS." Thus, it unleashed energies that enveloped the entire First Universe. The spirits felt the phenomenon, and the dragon, unwilling to let any opposing parties escape the area that had given rise to the likes of Micoda, unleashed the energies into place with the command: "CURSE OF EVOLUTION". The curse would prevent "posthuman" Phases from being used. The energies also destabilized dimensional pathways, meaning that no one would teleport outside or inside. The dragon envisioned three walls, which split the First Universe into four quarters. They appeared as if the spirits had bent to the dragon's will. The realms within went into a state of massive panic. Alypos moved with the landmass under its feet, riding it into what it dubbed Fourth Quarter. He gazed upon Third Quarter and unleashed a plague of spirits into it, eradicating all life between those two walls. From the ruins, it would build an "utopia" - the perfect society. It would be populated with the elite of humanity and become the image that commoners would look upon. The Divine Core was overjoyed with the dragon's vision. It started searching for spirits that would be worthy of leading the new society. The very purest one was chosen to be a mayor in the eventual town that would rise atop the ruins. The dragon wanted an avatar - a similar character that the Primal Trio used in the past. It melded the concept of draken personality into that of a warrior, but it lacked substance. The Divine Core urged that it send spirits to collect the essences of the sleeping Micoda and Welkere. The dragon realized the potential of their essences bound into the shell it had developed, and ordered the spirits to gather it with haste. The spirits rushed into the volcanoes born of the warriors' souls and gathered their energies. They did not get far as the volcanoes lashed back at intruders, but the dragon found the samples sufficient. The enforcer, Drak'Khard, was born. Unfortunately, Drak'Khard was a simple bland genie, though it held a devastating potential. Alypos sealed it into an armor and laid a golden dragon mask on its face to make the new character remind anyone of Alypos. The Divine Core understood that the mask was both a seal, preventing the new entity from using Phases, and a tool to convey the dragon's will. The dragon smiled and added a spark of Infinity on the new character. Its potential burst from within, covering the new entity in countless seals and techniques of forbidden arts. Its appearance morphed into a War's follower, its armor became scarlet, and it roared to the spirits of the entire Universe. They responded to the call by assuming dragon forms. The Divine Core could only watch the plan unfolding much quicker than it had anticipated, with the dragon's actions perfectly melding the world into its image. Draken followers would start taking over the societies, and the dragon emperor itself focused on the utopia - High Town. The emperor carefully picked the residents of the new society, the white dragon Ascalante being appointed to lead them. Drak'Khard fought people from other worlds that wanted to interrupt the progress that was being made. It never lost, and The Divine Core had an idea. The enforcer was crowned the Champion of the Arena, with Alypos's realm reformed and renamed into Grand Colosseum. The emperor would then have the enemies locked up below the Colosseum, in a facility named Prison of Eternity. The Divine Core also came to realize that Drak'Khard's devastating skill had a reason: it was not a mere attempt on the fusion of Micoda and Welkere - the genie was the very fusion of them itself. Thus, to progress its world order, Alypos dragged world leaders out of the Second Universe and Third Universe to face the undefeatable champion - Drak'Khard. Slowly, but surely, new spirits took up dragon forms in those Universes and forced the societies to submit. While there existed a party known as The Resistance, bent on directly opposing the regime that was focused on its divine dragon emperor, it had no real role to play until year 3060. The opposition emerges In a new year party of 3060, held at First Quarter to honor the 60th anniversary of Alypos's emergence, a messenger appeared, bearing a report from Kunoma. The messenger wished to read the urgent report out loud, and the officials agreed. 10 of 12 senators of Kunoma had disagreed to put Alypos's laws into motion, writing the Act of The Resistance instead. The act lifted all limits on violence on the streets against the draken suppressors. The people partying realized that their time of suppression was ending - the officials were actually stepping up against the dragon empire. The act, which was basically a declaration of war, resulted in a massacre at the party. The messenger was revealed to actually be the leader of The Resistance, Grex "the Scarlet Fist", former officer of Kunoma's military. Many civilians and many draken guards were killed with very few actually surviving the sudden outrage. Grex survived, taking many of the former Kunoman senators to safety after the initial conflict. The Resistance's joy was short-lived, as Drak'Khard made an appearance during the day after the beginning of the riot, rounding up the most dangerous to be imprisoned and killing the weaker ones. The Act of The Resistance was revoked. The next years saw a surge in the crime committed against the drakes. The Resistance mercilessly struck at important events, labeling themselves as terrorists, but also gaining new followers. The Divine Core was not interested, as it believed Drak'Khard was quite sufficient at handling any weak enemies that awaited their chance to meaninglessly assault. High Town, their crown jewel, was untouched, and that was enough for it to be satisfied. However, an unknown enemy bearing the energies of Micoda appeared during a riot at Kunoma at year 3063. The Divine Core was worried and ordered a thorough investigation of the Soul Volcanoes, the rests of Micoda and Welkere. Many adventurous dragon warriors were sent into their depths, but Drak'Khard was ordered to stay back due to The Divine Core's fear of it getting corrupted by the influence of its original essences. A few of them managed to survive the backlash of the volcanic depths and confirm that the masters of the Might of Soul still slept, encased in unbreakable crystals. The Divine Core was a bit worried over the fact that the duo was not completely eradicated, as it had hoped. Yet there seemed to be nothing to be afraid of. Its views changed as yet another enemy assaulted High Town, killing several highborne family heads and causing panic. The culprit was later identified as Therigem, the swordmaster. He escaped by disguising himself as a dragon and even attempted to assassinate the mayor, Ascalante, who led the search for the culprit. The Divine Core later found out from Drak'Khard's report that a secret project, Dread Ward, had received some excellent results. It was carried out within Prison of Eternity, carrying experiments on select few candidates to become elite troopers. Among them, interestingly, were Rolfen and Adocim, Micoda's two most important allies. The most devastating surprise happened some time later. The unknown enemy, called "Second Micoda" in their secret reports, had killed the guardians of Micoda's Soul Volcano. The Divine Core feared the worst, but the dragon emperor did not seem to understand the gravity of the situation. After it realized the truth some time later, it merely ordered Ascalante to keep High Town intact and let Micoda endure his journey to the Fourth Quarter, where he would naturally head. The troublesome factor was not Micoda, but the fact Welkere and The Resistance had allied with him to rid the world of the dragon empire. The Divine Core could not prevent the dragon from underestimating the threat. The warriors took on the obstacles on the path to enter Grand Colosseum and face Drak'Khard, Champion of the Arena. The dragon emperor turned off their Soul Voices by its will, but the heroes managed to regain it from the influence of their fusion. The battle that ensued was a terrifying experience. Drak'Khard spared no effort to try to defeat the duo, using Forbidden Soul Eruption. Finally, the entity's mask fell off and it was revealed to the heroes as their fusion. Welkere gave up every bit of strength to ensure Micoda would defeat the beast. With it defeated, Alypos was forced to battle. The dragon was overflowing with energy, dominating the battle. It was at time of need that The Grey Comet appeared from within the prisons that had been destroyed, saving Micoda from Alypos's Breath of Domination. The Divine Core was helpless. The dragon fought on with absolute rage, unleashing overwhelming moves but lacking tactical sense. The spirits of the recently killed unleashed their wrath in Micoda's attack, a shockwave that dominated the dragon's body so utterly that The Divine Core, fearing for its own survival, used the body as a mere shield and revealed itself to the hero. "Back to Zero." With those words, the entity of Infinity acknowledged the fall of its empire and the fact that Zero Gate, its rest, would serve as the ultimate battlefield between it and the hero it had cultivated. Category:Characters